PIR Staff (PSF) file scope

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The Staff submission includes data records of academic staff members undertaking full‑time, fractional full‑time and casual staff duties. Providers are only required to report on academic staff.

Data records should be reported for academic staff, who at the reference date:

are members of staff

have an effective substantive appointment

have current duties which require them to undertake work undertaken in either:

an academic organisational unit;

an academic support services organisational unit;

a student services organisational unit;

a public services organisational unit or a general institution services organisational unit; or

an independent operation, but only if it is a controlled entity.

For the reporting of FT/FTT Academic Staff members, the reference date is to be determined by the provider as a 'point in time' at a date between 31 March and 31 August. Once chosen, the provider should report all FT/FFT academic staff employed at this date.

For Academic Staff members that undertake a combination of academic and non‑academic duties during their employment, only the fraction of the FTE commensurate with academic duties should be reported. For example, a staff member that undertakes 60% academic duties and 40% non‑academic duties should be reported to TEQSA as 0.60 FTE. The sum of these fractions should not exceed 1.00 in respect of any single substantive appointment.

Full‑time/Fractional full‑time staff

Each full‑time and/or fractional full‑time staff record will relate to one appointment for a member of staff and in respect of one function being performed in the Higher Education work sector and one organisational unit.

The total number of full‑time and/or fractional full‑time staff data records in the submission will depend on the number of records generated for each member of staff and the total number of staff.

For some full‑time staff members there may be more than one data record. Multiple records would be generated where a staff member:

has more than one effective substantive appointment with an institution; or

undertakes current duties in more than one organisational unit.

Where a full‑time member of staff generates more than one staff data record, the information reported for Element 401 (Person identification code) and Element 501 (Highest qualification) must be the same in each record.

For the PIR Submission, records should only be included for academic staff for the duties related solely to higher education. For staff members that work across VET and higher education operations only the FTE associated with the higher education academic delivery of the award should be reported against element 513.

Records to be excluded

The PIR is designed to obtain data relating to standard, comparable employee arrangements. It is not designed to collect data on other arrangements that may be in place, such as the use of volunteers, labour hire firms and non‑controlled affiliates.

There is, however, an option for providers that operate consortium models or have similar circumstances to submit aggregated third party academic staff data in the PIR. Please contact TEQSA's Information Management team at collections [at] teqsa.gov.au if you would like to discuss this optional submission.

Data excluded in the submission for staff:

where duties relate to VET operations

for full‑time equivalence expended by a member of staff in any independent operation which is not a controlled entity.

Actual casual Staff

For reporting to the PIR, providers can choose one of two methods for calculating casual staff FTE. The first method ("Method 1") is consistent with the department and measures actual casual FTE from the year preceding the reference year. Providers that use this method will report Casual/Sessional staff for year preceding the current reference year. Where possible, TEQSA encourages providers to use Method 1 as it aligns to the department's national HEIMS collection methodology.

Providers may also use a second method ("Method 2") to calculate casual staff FTE based on group certificate data from annual group certificates in the financial year. Providers that use this method will report casual/sessional staff for the latest financial year.

Records to be excluded

Records should only include academic staff for the duties related solely to higher education. For staff members that work across VET and higher education operations only the FTE associated with the higher education academic delivery of the award should be reported against element 513.

Records are not to be included for:

members of staff whose duties relate solely to VET; and

Full‑time equivalence expended by a member of staff in any independent operation which is not a controlled entity.

Revisions

Generally revisions to staff data must be coordinated through the department.

A revision can only be made where a particular code has been reported incorrectly through a genuine administrative error. For example, if an incorrect value was reported for any of the key elements they can be revised to reflect the correct information.

Verification

You are required to verify your staff data once a year. The verification is due by 31 August. Data can be verified once data has been successfully submitted. The due date in the reporting schedule is the final deadline when data should be verified. Data can be verified prior to the due date and early verification is encouraged.